Early one winter day a man purchased a calendar for the coming year. On the first of the new year the man put the calendar up on the wall next to the bed in his otherwise empty bedroom. Looking over the first month the man took notice of the calendar's theme. Next to the number of each day there was a list of names of people who had died on the same day throughout history. After scanning over the list and thinking through the names on the calendar the man went to sleep for the night.

The next day, and each day thereafter, the man arose in the morning to look at the calendar and check the new day's list of the dead. This routine continued as the months of the new year passed and the rain turned back to snow. On the last day of the year the man awoke from a nightmare in a cold sweat and frantically turned to check the calendar for names. Breathing a sigh of relief that his name was not upon the list he dressed, left his empty room, and headed out to shop for a new calendar.

Josh Honn was born in 1979 and has a Master's degree in American Studies. He lives in Chicago, where he works as a production artist for the Chicago Reader.

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